It seems to me there has been an increasing number of people coming on looking for help finding their lost cat. Maybe this will help a little.

As soon as you realize your cat is missing:

Go to the Humane Society or shelter in your area with a picture of your cat. Do not phone. You need to go there in person. Kitty may have been turned in or caught. Ask to see the sick room and the feral rooms. A cat who has been trapped/caught may "act" feral. Act quickly. These cats are the first to be euthanized. Usually within two to three days. Keep going back and asking about your cat. S/he may eventually end up there.

Make posters and plaster the area your cat would normally be in and the neighbourhoods around you. It is not necessary to offer an award on the poster. You can make that decision when your cat is returned. Post them in vets' offices, in malls, wherever you can.

Go to your neighbours and ask them to check under their decks, in their sheds, anywhere where a cat may hide out or have been curious about. An open shed door is a greeting card for a curious kitty. Check construction sites in your area. Your cat may have gotten trapped in a shed on site or a closed room which may not be opened for some time.

Put out kitty's favourite blanket, litter box, and food. You can also add an article of their favourite person's clothing recently worn. This may help call kitty home.

A can of sardines, tuna, or salmon may help lure out kitty.

Go out early in the morning (4 - 5 AM), and late at night (11 - 12) with a flashlight and a bag of kitty's favourite treats. Shine the flashlight into bushes, hedges, under places where kitty may be hiding. Call kitty's name repeatedly. It is quieter then and kitty may be more apt to come out of hiding. This has worked often to bring kitty home.

Buy or borrow a humane live trap. You can set it up on your porch, in your back yard, in a place where your cat has been spotted or would usually hang around. Bait it with the tuna, salmon or sardines. If kitty is a catnip hound you can even use catnip.

As much as this may hurt call whoever is responsible in your town/city for picking up road kill. In this area the organization is called Public Works. Ask them if they picked up any cats and the description.

If anyone can think of more to add to this please do. Let's help bring cats back home.
Good luck. Don't give up.

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Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me.

We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD!

"Missing Pet Partnership is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to reuniting lost companion animals with their owners/guardians. Our website offers behavior-based lost pet recovery tips and referrals to lost pet services. We operate the first-ever volunteer lost pet search-and-rescue team (in Seattle, WA) that offers cutting edge lost pet recovery techniques like pet detectives with search dogs, lost dog protests, window tagging to market lost dogs in a community, and motion activated wildlife cameras with feeding stations to detect and capture displaced cats."

"Ronda, a certified MAR Technician, provides lost pet consultations services in Ontario. Ronda is available for phone and email consultations, including lost pet poster design and placement, recommended search activities and other information."

"Kat Albrecht is a former police officer-turned-pet-detective who is pioneering the science of finding lost pets. She has trained search dogs to locate missing people, criminals, physical evidence, and lost pets.

Disillusioned by a police career where her dog-tracking techniques and brilliant search dogs rarely got a chance to shine, Kat started training her retired Weimaraner, Rachel, to search for lost animals with unbelievable results. To the amazement of her colleagues, Kat decided to make her unconventional use of search dogs a full time career, becoming the only law-enforcement-based pet detective in the United States. Using investigative techniques such as search probability theory, behavioral profiling, searches with cat-detection dogs, scent-trailing dogs, and high-tech equipment, Kat Albrecht has already trained over 125 pet detectives in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Ireland who have helped thousands of pet owners locate their lost pets."

Hope all lost pets are reunited with their families!

__________________
What part of "Meow" don't you understand?

We can be part of the problem or part of the solution. Inaction is part of the problem.
Please advocate for animals.

The Silence Factor is important to know about. Veterinarians are usually familiar with it.

After searching our house, I found one of our cats hiding under an ottoman/ footstool thingy with a skirt. She was not feeling well, so she hid. I took her to the vet & found out she had kidney disease.

"The Silence Factor kills many cats because while the cat is sick or injured and hiding under a neighbor's deck, cat owners are typically busy "looking" for their cat down at the local shelter or they are busy posting flyers on telephone poles. Instead, the proper search for most cats in most situations is to conduct an aggressive, physical search of the immediate area while understanding that the cat might be close by but hiding in silence."

Much more behaviour-based & search advice on that site.

__________________
What part of "Meow" don't you understand?

We can be part of the problem or part of the solution. Inaction is part of the problem.
Please advocate for animals.

The Silence Factor is important to know about. Veterinarians are usually familiar with it.

After searching our house, I found one of our cats hiding under an ottoman/ footstool thingy with a skirt. She was not feeling well, so she hid. I took her to the vet & found out she had kidney disease.

"The Silence Factor kills many cats because while the cat is sick or injured and hiding under a neighbor's deck, cat owners are typically busy "looking" for their cat down at the local shelter or they are busy posting flyers on telephone poles. Instead, the proper search for most cats in most situations is to conduct an aggressive, physical search of the immediate area while understanding that the cat might be close by but hiding in silence."

Much more behaviour-based & search advice on that site.

Great Advice! And take a flashlight so it is easy to see the reflection of the cat's eyes.